Peru's jailed ex-president Fujimori banned from electoral race

AFP
LIMA
Petroleumworld.com 01 11 06

Peru's electoral board Tuesday barred jailed ex-president Alberto Fujimori from making a fresh presidential bid on April 9, more than five years after he fled to Japan amid a corruption scandal.

The decision came four days after Fujimori's daughter Keiko registered her father as a candidate for the presidential vote, even though he is detained in Chile and officially banned from seeking public office in Peru until 2010.

Fujimori's party -- called "Si Cumple," Spanish for "He Keeps His Promise" -- appealed the decision, and a dozen supporters have been holding a hunger strike outside the electoral offices in downtown Lima.

Fujimori led Peru for a decade, but fled to Japan, the land of his forefathers, in 2000, amid mounting accusations of human rights abuses and corruption. He showed up unexpectedly in Chile in November and was promptly detained.

Peruvian authorities are seeking his extradition, citing charges that he corrupted officials and oversaw abductions, homicides and torture during his presidency.
Fujimori, 67, insists he is innocent and a victim of political persecution.

While he remains a controversial figure in Peru, an opinion poll in November showed he had sufficient support to qualify for a second round run-off election against the top vote-getter Lourdes Flores if he were allowed to run.

But more recent surveys show that the conservative Flores and populist Ollanto Humala are now tied at the head of the field of 24 candidates.

A former officer who led a military uprising against Fujimori in 2000, Humala's popularity has risen rapidly in recent months.

Much of his support comes from impoverished Peruvians, who were once considered staunch Fujimori supporters.

"There is a lack of interest in Fujimori's candidacy as a result of Humala's surge," political analyst Raul Vargas told Lima's RPP radio Tuesday. "All the parties were trying to recover the remnants of 'Fujimorism'," said Vargas.

While battling for Fujimori's candidacy, his backers on Monday registered another candidate, lawmaker Martha Chavez, to avoid being shut out of the race altogether.

But legislator Martha Moyano, also a Fujimori supporter, stressed that this was merely a "contingency plan, because former president Fujimori's registration is one that we will defend to the end."

Fujimori is credited with reining in economic chaos and leftist insurgencies during his 1990-2000 presidency, but is also accused of trampling on democracy and human rights.

He resigned by fax from a Tokyo hotel room in November 2000 following an official visit to Brunei.

Tokyo refused Lima's requests to extradite Fujimori -- the son of immigrants from Japan -- and granted him Japanese nationality.

AFP 01/10/06

Copyright © 2006 AFP. All rights reserved

 

 

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